Letting Go and Letting God

David Brandt Berg

Some people are used to having so much natural strength and drive that when they don’t have it, it really gets them down. But that can be the very thing that stands in the way of the Lord showing His strength! That’s why the Lord had Paul say, “When I am weak, then I am strong. For His strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10). I think it actually scares some people when they haven’t got it, because they’re so used to it.

The people with a lot of drive and talent, terrific looks and tremendous personality and natural charm, they’ve already got it made in the natural. They’re already popular and liked, and you look at them and wonder, “What do they need? They have it all!” But that’s the very thing that can make it hard for them to let go and let God, because they’ve got so much to let go of. When they do let go, it can feel like they’re drowning or sinking, because they had so much to rely on.

A person may be weak physically, and even weak spiritually, but still naturally have terrific drive, looks, personality and brains. If you’ve had so much, it can be hard for you to just let go and let God. You feel like you’re sinking or you’re lost, or you’re not getting anywhere. That’s why we need the Word so much! You need to get close to the Lord, to get to know Him and really depend on Him.

When my mother first got prayed over for healing and told she should have faith, she worked so hard at trying to have faith, it nearly killed her! She hemorrhaged and fainted dead away in a pool of blood with a lung hemorrhage. She was trying to work it up instead of pray it down. People don’t realize it’s not anything you do at all; it’s just something you accept from the Lord, like salvation. Your works must not be self-works and self-effort; it’s got to be the Lord. Otherwise it’s self-righteousness, self-works and self-energy, what the Lord calls “a voluntary humility,” sort of a self-made spirituality (Colossians 2:18).

It takes strength to try to be good, act good, look good, and all that, whereas this kind of strength is strictly from the Lord. You just have to accept it from the Lord, and it’s only from the Lord. It’s just like salvation; there’s nothing you can do to get it except receive it by faith. That’s all! You can’t be good enough, you can’t work hard enough, you can’t work it up. You can’t get it no matter how hard you try. You just have to let go and receive it from the Lord.

You have to humble yourself and acknowledge that you don’t deserve it, that you’re just a sinner, and that there’s no way you can get it except by the grace of God, just a pure gift. That’s what people have to recognize about works too. We put a lot of emphasis on works, but we’ve got to remember that it’s the Lord that gets the credit for it all. It’s got to be the Lord’s works or they’ll be self-works and self-righteousness.

The Lord wants you to throw yourself on His complete mercy! For new young Christians that don’t have the years of foundation that some of us have had, it’s amazing to me how they can bear so much responsibility—spiritually as well as physically, mentally and nervously—when they haven’t had the years of experience and training of casting our burden on the Lord and trusting the Lord, not worrying about it, not even trying to do it, but just letting the Lord do it.

I could never have done anything of what God’s done. What’s been accomplished is all so far beyond me! I know it’s the Lord. People give me too much credit, when it’s all the Lord. I don’t worry about all the problems of my Father or His business, I just let Him take care of it.

This is what you need to learn the most: Let go and let God! Lie back in His arms and let Him do it—let Him solve it. Rest in the Lord.